


Ghosts of the Past

by Dangerously_Demonic



Series: The Legacy of Darth Letum [4]
Category: Alien Series, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Feels, Gen, I broke 3 different friends with this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 06:22:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11823018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dangerously_Demonic/pseuds/Dangerously_Demonic
Summary: A distress beacon suddenly begins transmitting on the forgotten world of Dromund Kaas. Unsure if the beacon is new or from long since downed ships, Kenobi and Clayton investigate. For Clayton, this means seeing his home forgotten and ravaged by the passage of time. (Set between Ep. II and Ep. III)





	Ghosts of the Past

**Author's Note:**

> This is essentially a bit of lore writing for a role play I have. Clayton is a hybrid of sorts. He was originally a Republic soldier who stumbled into a Xenomorph nest and was "infected". I've pretty much written that Xenos were an early project by Karness Muur before he went on to create the Rakghouls. So, basically: elbows up/waist up = human, elbows down/waist down = whole lotta NOPE.
> 
> In addition, he's originally designed for The Old Republic era, but my friend wanted Kenobi stuff...So he got thrown into stasis for 3600 years and with some force hand waving, there he is.

The beeping of the console was incessant and annoying to the point of it being nearly maddening. It simply wouldn’t stop beeping and it took Clayton longer than he cared to admit to track down the sound, but at least he had his lack of familiarity to blame when it came to the ship. Evidently, the Jedi he was traveling with had also heard the noise. He glanced at Kenobi, noting the faint expression known as ‘Jedi Annoyance’. Likely, the other man had been meditating or whatever Jedi do when they’re not preaching about the Light Side and saving baby animals from certain doom.

If he was honest, Clayton hadn’t expected to travel with a Jedi again. Askellan had been annoying at times and Cathedi...Well, he didn’t really want to think about him currently. He supposed that the sheer lack of sass helped, but it was instead replaced by overbearing niceties. He’d originally thought Kenobi wasn’t capable of even being sassy until the guy had snarked at Mace Windu. That had been something else.

“Distress beacon, from…” he trailed off the check the coordinates and the numbers that the computer gave him was a surprise, “Dromund Kaas.”

The Jedi echoed his surprise, “The seat of the old Sith Empire? It’s been abandoned for centuries after the war ended. I can’t imagine anything there still working.”

“Doesn’t mean a thing. Parts of the Endar Spire still worked despite crashing on Taris. It required some work by pirates, but it was doable. There’s still the possibility of salvagers trying to raid some of the temples on Dromund Kaas, which is fucking dumb on their part. Plenty of old, dead sith lords to piss off. Not a nice way to die.” Clayton replied as he downloaded the transmission before setting a course to the planet.

Kenobi moved over to a different computer to look over the analysis of the recording, “It doesn’t have any sort of information besides coordinates and the usual distress phrasing.”

Rather than replying to that, Clayton simply initiated the hyperdrive once the course was plotted, “We’ll be there in a few hours.”

Luckily for him, Kenobi hadn’t been assigned anything by the Jedi council. This meant that he could take his time in exploring the, likely, ruins of his former home. Despite his mild excitement, he felt more apprehensive than anything. Would there even be anything left? The Sith Empire had fallen apart about two thousand years ago, and considering how Taris had been after only three hundred? He wasn’t really expecting much of anything to be left.

It seemed that Kenobi had about as much excitement over the planet as he did apprehension. The Jedi had never heard of the planet, and this was actually true for a number of the places Clayton had mentioned to him. So much had been lost in the 3600 years he’d been asleep. The excitement was familiar, the sense of the upcoming unknown adventure. It reminded him of Cath--No. Just...No.

Clayton shoved the intrusive thought out of his mind and glared at the wall with a renewed sense of irritation. Likely the reason _why_ he was so apprehensive about Dromund Kaas was because of all the memories that would be dredged up. Sighing, he pinched the bridge of his nose. Sooner or later, he’d had to come to terms with the idea that Cathedi was dead and had been for thousands of years. It was just hard to comprehend, because to him, he’d last seen the man two months ago.

The sound of the hyperdrive shutting down pulled him out of his thoughts. Standing up, he walked to the bridge of the ship and gazed at the stormy planet in front of him. It seemed the years had done nothing to quell the rage of the storms that always encircled the planet. To his right, Kenobi was frowning.

“Is this normal?” He gestured at the planet in front of them.

“Always. Sit down and hold on. With the lightning rods likely rubble, there’s going to be turbulence.” Sitting down as well, he piloted the ship down through the atmosphere and frowned as he tried to locate a decent landing spot. Most of the city had been consumed by jungle and swamp, from what he could see. “We’re going to have to walk.” After a bit of time, he was able to locate a decent landing spot which wouldn’t result in the ship being half sunk into the muck when they returned.

As they exited the ship, he glanced at Kenobi and about laughed when he saw the Jedi was wearing his robes. “You’re going to die wearing that.” It was roughly noon and he could already feel the humidity of the planet. This was nothing unusual and was to be expected with Dromund Kaas. Consequently, he had thought ahead and had left his robes on the ship. When Kenobi waved away his concern, Clayton barked out a laugh and shook his head. Fine, let the Jedi broil in his robes.

“I believe this is what’s left of the space port. Kaas City and the distress beacon would be...That way.” He pointed in a direction that seemed to be nothing but oppressive jungle. While he didn’t see Kenobi’s face, he heard a faint unhappy noise and felt the other man’s mental grumblings.

“What, the Jedi Knight is afraid of a little bit of jungle?” He looked over to the other man and raised an eyebrow. Then, he smirked when his jab was met with a bit of a glare. Like most Jedi, he could still get under Kenobi’s skin. It just took a bit more work compared to others. Turning away from the man, he began picking his way through the foliage and undergrowth.

The sounds of the jungle hadn’t changed much in the time since his last visit. Just the volume. The same animal noises were there, but there was a distinct lack of noise caused by sentient life. Now and then, he’d catch glints of metal buried in the dirt as he walked, likely the remains of the taxi system.

Suddenly, the jungle opened up to the ruins of the great city. In front of them were the crumbling, ivy covered walls that had surrounded the city. In the distance was the once imposing Citadel, long since collapsed in on itself and nothing more than a skeleton. Overhead, thunder rumbled and the sounds of the jungle suddenly muted as it began to lightly rain. Clayton paused, as if to get his bearings. No, he knew where he was. He knew exactly where he was. This was the entrance to Kaas City and in his mind’s eye he could still see how everything once was. Briefly, he closed his eyes and tried to push away the lingering sensations of trauma the echoed in the force. It felt as if it was still going on, no doubt a result of the planets’ close tie to the dark side and the sheer amount of death that had occurred. 

_Screams were all around him. The smell of smoke and burned flesh._

_Someone was sobbing and repeating a name he couldn’t make out._

_Starfighters screamed overhead and two of them exploded._

_A Republic capital ship was firing its turbo lasers at the citadel._

He pushed away the emotions that threatened to bubble up and continued walking. Around him, he could feel the faint echo in the force from the lives lost. It was an ugly scar that marred the Force and would likely remain for centuries to come. A similar feeling had followed him on Taris, where so many lives had ceased in an instant.

While he hadn’t grown up in the Empire, he had considered it home, had considered Kaas City home. Reaching where the twin bridges once were, he gazed towards the twisted remains of the citadel. He could still remember Cathedi’s wonder upon seeing it for the first time, how he had been full of questions.

  _“What’s that big place?”_

_“That’s the Citadel. To the left in the Mandalorian Enclave, to the right is Imperial Intelligence, and the center is where all the Sith Lords hang out.”_

_“Can you take me there?”_

_“I don’t know. It’s probably dangerous and I don’t want you recognized.”_

Looking over to his companion, he noted the look of wonder on Kenobi’s face. “The Republic did an orbital bombardment.”

Kenobi looked to him, his expression shifting to confusion, “How do you know?”

“I just do.” Turning, Clayton continued walking. How did Kenobi not feel it? The scars in the force was plain as day to him. As they continued, he was able to recognize different structures and knew what they were from his time.

Soon, they reached a wide open area dotted with broken statues. Many were worn away or completely ivy covered. While Kenobi poked around, Clayton just blandly stared. This was the park where Cathedi and him had often gone with Fox. The canine-alien had often gotten stir crazy and letting him romp in the park had been a good way of releasing pent up energy. 

_“Who’s that statue of?” Cathedi’s questions were never ending, but Clayton honestly didn’t mind since they weren’t exactly dumb questions._

_“Tulak Hord, I think.”_

_“That’s a pretty dumb looking statue. What’s with sith and all the scary looking statues anyway? Think they’re compensating for something?”_

_“Better than all those weird things you Jedi fucking call statues.”_

After getting Kenobi’s attention, he continued onward towards the distress beacon. Now and then, he’d point out something of interest. However, it wasn’t with much enthusiasm since doing so was reminiscent of what he did with Cathedi. However, his mind came to a stuttering stop when he reached the remains of where he once lived. He’d recognize that statue anywhere. The Bantha’s Ass, as Cathedi had so humorously named it.

The apartment building had once been one of the tallest in the city and home to easily hundreds of thousands of people. It also had been home to some of his most cherished memories. Thoughts at random flitted through his mind. When Cathedi had first met Fox. Tending to Cathedi after he had been captured and tortured by Sith on Korriban. 

_Their legs were still tangled together and he felt sedate, sleepy almost._

_The rain pattered against the window and while he wanted to roll over onto his stomach to sleep, he was just too comfortable._

_Cathedi shifted onto his side and tossed his arm over Clayton’s chest, then spoke after a long few moments. “I don’t want you to go.”_

_“I don’t want to go either, but you know I’m needed.”_

_“But I don’t want to lose you again, because next time might be permanent.”_

_“I’m not going to run off, if that’s what you mean.”_

_“No, I’m afraid of someone killing you.”_

_“I’ll be fine. It’s you I’m worried about. You make everything okay and I don’t want to lose that.”_

The sudden sensation of someone touching his shoulder jarred him out of his thoughts and almost instinctively, he lashed out with the force. Kenobi was knocked back several feet and gave him a bewildered look. Clayton kept his face stoney, “ **Don’t.** ” His voice came out harsh and cold as he fought to keep the emotions he felt from breaking through. Behind him, his tail twitched dangerously.

Kenobi held up his hands in a gesture of peace, but was clearly still confused over the suddenness of Clayton’s actions. “Let’s just keep moving, alright?” 

Clayton didn’t say anything and instead found himself unusually irritated over the fact that he had actually managed to unsettle the usually unflappable Jedi. Past the apartment building, the rubble and debris became worse, hinting that this part of the city had been hit more severely by the attack. While he wasn’t having any issue navigating the terrain, he was having to slow down so that the Jedi could keep up. The man had long since shed his robes and had tossed them over his shoulder, but this had obviously done nothing against the humidity. 

He paused to crouch down and pick up some debris. The logo of whatever side it had belonged to was long since faded, but the metal alone told him that it was starship. Slowly, he looked around, snippets of the fight playing out in his mind’s eye. Standing back up, he continued walking. “It’s a ship graveyard.” In the distance he could make out the bridge section of an Imperial dreadnaught. He gestured at it, “That’s the bridge of an Imperial Harrower-class dreadnaught.” 

Kenobi pulled his datapad off his belt and tapped a few keys, “We’re getting close, then. The signal is coming from the north, about half a kilometer.” 

As they walked, Clayton look up at the ship whose shadow they were passing under. Part of the hull was still intact despite centuries of vines and moss that was hanging off of it. “Republic. Inexpungable-class command ship. Not surprising that they’d bring out the big guns. This is...was Kaas City. They probably had one shot at it and didn’t want to fail.” His voice steadily turned bitter as he spoke. 

Glancing at Kenobi, he expected the man to say something since a thought was pinging around his head, but the Jedi was looking at his datapad instead. “We’re almost on top of it.” Frowning slightly, he turned and started walking with Clayton following a moment later. This led them to the remains of another Republic ship. 

“Republic. Hammerhead-class cruiser.” Lightly, he touched the ancient hull which still bore the marks of countless battles. “The signal is probably coming from an Aurek.” At Kenobi’s questioning look, Clayton sighed loudly. “Aureks were a type of strike fighter.” Then he made a dismissive gesture, “Whatever. Help me look for a way in.” 

It took them another twenty minutes to finally find a spot where they could gain entrance and then another few minutes clearing away the debris. Thankfully, they weren’t too far away from the bay. Still, making their way there took time because of debris. At one point, Clayton got tired of it and simply started using his lightsaber to cut through the smaller bits of metal. 

The top of the bay had been torn open, resulting in parts of the bay being grown over with moss and vines. Slowly, they climbed over wreckage until they reached an Aurek that was mostly intact. The hatch was still sealed and the pilot still strapped into the seat. Although by now, whoever it had once been, was nothing but bones. 

“I guess that answers that.” Clayton commented as he gestured and used the Force to disable the distress beacon. 

“How did it even work after all these years, let alone activate?” Kenobi asked, his eyes not leaving the remains of the pilot. 

“Beats me. Things finally decayed enough to activate it?” Clayton shrugged and jumped off the wreckage to start making his way back they came. 

“Clayton, what about the pilot? Whoever they were, they deserve a proper burial.” 

This caused Clayton to sigh, “You Jedi never change. Obi-Wan, whoever that is, they’re not the only one. Hammerheads had a crew of 300. It’s pretty safe to assume that all hands went down with the ship...But why stop there? Why not bury everyone in these ships? That’s gotta be a couple tens of thousands easily. Fuck! How about the whole fucking city?! Millions died when the apartment buildings were fired on. Not everyone was able to escape because the Republic sprung it on them!” 

He hadn’t intended to turn his statement into a short rant, but this had turned out to be a pretty shitty trip. While it hadn’t really made him feel better, it was a lot better than him blowing a fuse. It didn’t do anything to prevent him from feeling Kenobi’s confusion and, surprisingly, concern. 

“You didn’t answer my question from earlier. How do you know this? As far as anyone knows, Dromund Kaas doesn’t exist.” Kenobi’s voice was quiet and calm, clearly trying to work the ‘diplomatic jedi’ angle. Normally, it would have resulted in Clayton snarking at him, but he was too keyed up at the moment to care. 

“Because I’ve _seen it_.” Making a frustrated noise, he started pacing, his tail lashing with agitation. “I’m...Force sensitive in an extreme way. Most people can feel it around them, sometimes they might get visions. I do that too, that’s a given, but in some places where events with high emotion or trauma happened...They make such an impression on the Force that I can see it. They’re like wounds that never fully heal. They sit there and fester. When I come along, they scream to me.” 

He trailed off for a moment, trying to put what he felt into the proper words. While he was usually capable of making a valiant speech on the fly, that didn’t really apply to himself. “When we got to the city, I was there for a brief moment. When the Republic attacked.” He shook his head a bit, “I didn’t see much, but it was enough. Maybe you don’t care with your Jedi detachment about things but it was home.” Better than what the Republic ever offered, Clayton thought bitterly. 

Kenobi was quiet throughout this, but his expression had shifted into something thoughtful. He spared a glance to the remains inside the fighter, “I had thought that I had felt something, but I wasn’t sure if it was the sensation of the darkness that lingers here or if it was something else. Clearly, your species is a great deal more force sensitive than humans are.” 

This only caused Clayton to look away, effectively hiding the bitter smile that had formed on his face. “Maybe.” Still, in typical Jedi fashion, Kenobi hadn’t said everything on his mind. There were unspoken thoughts bouncing around inside the man’s head. Clayton didn’t dig too deep since these were simply part of the other trying to piece things together. “Whatever. Let’s go. We found what we were looking for.” Turning, he started walking away, not really caring if he was followed or not. 

Behind him was the sound of Kenobi sighing and climbing off of the wreckage to follow. As they slowly made their way back to the ship, Clayton continued to try and ignore the feelings that came from the city. He felt raw enough as it was and didn’t want to focus on what the Force was trying to shove at him. Yes, he knew something terrible had happened, but he didn’t need it constantly rubbed in his face. 

It was close to dark by the time they reached the ship and they were both exhausted. Kenobi physically and Clayton mentally. Honestly, Clayton was looking forward to getting off Dromund Kaas and maybe never returning. His old life was dead and gone, much like Kaas City. Perhaps he should do well to forget it as much as the city behind him had been forgotten. 

He looked towards the jungle as Kenobi boarded the ship behind him. All he really had left was the ghosts of another life and ghosts could drive a man insane if he lingered on them too long. Turning, he walked up the ramp and into the ship, pressing the button to close up the ship as he passed it. The damn Jedi was still thinking. 

As he settled into the captain’s chair and began working through the usual pre-takeoff checks, he felt a sudden surge of guilt from Kenobi. Blinking, his shifted his attention to the other’s mind. Apparently, he had finally put things together. 

 _He’s not from my time. He’s struggling to adapt to how the universe is now because he still expects it to be the way he remembers._  

Clayton couldn’t help but feel annoyance at this because it likely meant that the Jedi would be trying to mother him in an attempt to help. “Fucking Jedi.” He muttered as he stabbed the hyperdrive button with a finger.


End file.
